Abel to Yzerman

By virtue of their win against CGY on Monday, DET achieved their first 3 game win streak since December, and had pulled within one point of 7th place NSH, and 3 points ahead of CGY. Since then, NSH have home wins against PHI on Tuesday, and MIN last night (5-0). MIN, had been winners of 3 straight heading into NSH, but were absolutely inept. NSH scored 3 in the 1st, and MIN mustered 8 total shots in the final 40 mins. NSH now sit 5 points ahead of DET. DET do have two games in hand and play at NSH on the 27th, and host them on April 3rd. Meanwhile, CGY won at COL (3-2) on Wednesday, and are back within a point of DET (DET do have one game in hand on CGY).

EDM are the worst team in the league, 13 points behind TOR (or is it ahead?), in the race for the utmost in futility (to be fair, the EDM injury list is absurd). EDM are losers of five straight games (among them a gimmick point loss at MTL), and are 2-7-1 in their last ten contests. EDM are also horrendous at home 8-24-3 (30th). DET, who have been on vacation since Mondays huge win, play three games in four nights, at VAN tomorrow, and hosting PIT Monday - - Thanks Gary, Ass. On paper, this tilt shouldn’t even be close. You know what that means; for a must win game tonight (since the next two are challenging), this contest also has the potential to be a huge let-down game as well.

Misc: Special teams are en fuego: DET have converted 12 of its last 36 power plays, scoring at least one power-play goal in 10 consecutive games. Penalty killing has also come up big, as the Wings have killed off 10 straight short-handed opportunities over six contests. DET have given up only 3 goals in the last 49 on the power play in the last 16 games (94%).

That’s the day this entire season has been all about, the date the NHL has decided the Edmonton Oilers will find out if they’ll have the first pick or the second pick in the draft.

But the question is what’s left between now and then?

Back from the Olympics and the Brier (with a brief stop over for the trade deadline and my 40th wedding anniversary), I’ve gone almost six weeks of mercifully not having to watch this hockey club.

But the gig is up.

There are six Oilers home games left to cover.

So score me up, here.

I understand I already missed ‘Fan Appreciation Night.’ Has any team in NHL history ever held one earlier?

You’d think they’d make Fan Appreciation Night every night the rest of the way. Or at least have a Devan Dubnyk Guaranteed Win Night.

There’s that, I guess. Will Dubnyk win a game? After watching him go 0-8-2 with a 4.16 goals against average and a .868 save percentage behind the Great Giveaway Gang of 2009-10, you wouldn’t want to miss that.

There’s the compelling season-long battle between Shawn Horcoff and Patrick O’Sullivan to end up with the worst plus-minus in the league — O’Sullivan is currently “leading” that category at minus 32 (in 847th place) to Horcoff’s minus 29 (in 846th place), and Sully’s on the shelf with a hand injury.

There’s the Battle of Alberta in the faceoff circle where the Flames sit 29th at 47.4 and the Oilers 30th at 46.8.

There’s also the riveting matter of figuring out which team ends up last 5-on-5. The Oilers are tied with Columbus at 0.75 goals per game in that category.

Can they remain last in both goals for and goals against?

Another one, which hasn’t managed to get much notice but is an indictment of the highest (lowest?) order, is the outshot percentage. The Oilers’ are .217, safely ahead of Atlanta and Carolina, who have at least managed to outshoot the opposition one third (.333) of the time.

I missed the Oilers’ mathematical elimination from a playoff position. Did that occasion pass without notice?

About Abel to Yzerman

Welcome to Abel to Yzerman, a Red Wing blog since 1977. No other site on the internet has better-researched, fact-laden and better prepared discussions than A2Y. Re-phrase: we do little research, find facts and stats highly overrated and claim little to no preparation. There are 19 readers of A2Y. No more, no less. All of them, except maybe one, are juvenile in nature. Reminding them of that in the comment section will only encourage them to prove that. Your suggestions and critiques are welcome: wphoulihan@gmail.com